Modern consumer electronics have enabled users to create, purchase, and amass considerable digital assets (also referred to as DAs). For example, a computing system (e.g., a smartphone, a stationary computer system, a portable computer system, a media player, a tablet computer system, a wearable computer system or device, etc.) can store or have access to a collection of digital assets (also referred to as a DA collection) that includes hundreds or thousands of DAs (e.g., images, videos, music, etc.).
Managing a DA collection can be a resource-intensive exercise for users. For example, retrieving multiple DAs representing a sentimental moment in a user's life from a sizable DA collection can require the user to sift through many irrelevant DAs. This process can be arduous and unpleasant for many users. A digital asset management (DAM) system can assist with managing a DA collection. A DAM system represents an intertwined system incorporating software, hardware, and/or other services in order to manage, store, ingest, organize, and retrieve DAs in a DA collection. An important building block for at least one commonly available DAM system is a database. Databases are commonly known as data collections that are organized as schemas, tables, queries, reports, views, and other objects. Exemplary databases include relational databases (e.g., tabular databases, etc.), distributed databases that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network, and object-oriented programming databases that can be congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses.
One problem associated with using databases for digital asset management (DAM) is that the DAM system can become resource-intensive. That is, substantial computational resources may be needed to manage the DAs in the DA collection (e.g., processing power for performing queries or transactions, storage memory space for storing the necessary databases, etc.). This requirement may assist with reducing the processing power available for other tasks. Another related problem associated with using databases is that digital asset management (DAM) cannot be easily implemented on a computing system with limited storage capacity without managing the assets directly (e.g., a portable device such as a smartphone or a wearable device). Consequently, a DAM system's functionality is generally provided by a remote device (e.g., an external data store, an external server, etc.) where copies of the DAs are stored and the results are transmitted back to the computing system having limited storage capacity. Requiring external data stores and/or servers in order to use databases for managing a large DA collection can assist with making digital asset management (DAM) resource-intensive. This requirement may also assist with reducing the processing power available for other tasks on the local device. At least one currently available DAM system uses metadata associated with a DA collection—such as spatiotemporal metadata (e.g., time metadata, location metadata, etc.)—to organize DAs in the DA collection into multiple events. These currently available DAM system(s), however, organize the metadata associated with the DA collection using databases, which can contribute to making digital asset management (DAM) a resource-intensive endeavor as explained above.